The SAFE Act Requirements Are Only the Minimum

In 2008, Congress passed the SAFE Act, which had the objectives of creating a uniform set of license application and reporting requirements for loan originators, enhancing consumer protections, creating a nationwide database, and providing tracking ability of loan originators. The SAFE Act set out minimum requirements of which most mortgage industry members are familiar:
20 hours of pre-licensing education, 8 hours of continuing education after the first year of licensing, pass a national and a state test, FBI background criminal check, and (starting in October, 2010) provide credit reports.

These are the minimum requirements but the SAFE Act gave each state the right to set additional requirements. And some states have. Many states have additional forms that must be signed by the loan originator as part of the application process. Other states require state background checks so you are getting your fingerprints taken twice (sometimes at 2 different places) so that one set of fingerprint cards can be sent to your state’s criminal database and the other set can be sent to the FBI database. Some states accept the 20 hours of pre-licensing education as full compliance with their licensing requirements and other states require the 20 hours plus some extra hours of state-specific education (for example, North Carolina and New Jersey require 4 extra hours). Some states are requiring 8 hours of continuing education but other states require additional hours (for example, Kentucky requires 12 hours).

Especially if you are licensed in multiple states, you must be aware of the licensing requirements of each state in which you wish to be licensed. Some states require more than you thought they would.

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